Former alderman Jim Fruin lives on Thornwood.
By: Diane Benjamin
I received this email today:
Diane, we live on Thornwood lane which is a 1 block street off Airport Road in Hawthorne Hills. The street has been on the city’s schedule for repaving last year and now this year. It was never done last year, but appears it will be done this year, but I am not sure why. Yes, the blacktop is cracked , and there are potholes , but none are the tire murdering , alignment killers I have found on more well used streets. Probably an hour or less with a city pot hole crew could take care of the street for another year. Most of the wear is on the outside of the street by the curbs. This street is not that busy and not a main connector thru Hawthorne.
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I am including 4 photos. The first one is a current sidewalk crossing that appears will be replaced by the city when they do the resurfacing. Why, I am unsure. It is hard to see but where the “remove only” on the sidewalk has little criss crosses in the cement on it as it descends to street level. I assume it will be replaced with what is in photo 2 which has that red insert in it. This is what the city used on all sidewalk crossings when they paved another street in Hawthorne 2 years ago. When it is raining, or icy, the red insert is actually much more slippery for walkers than the regular sidewalk concrete.
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The last 2 photos are 2 pictures of my street. There is obviously bad paving, especially on the north side of the street, but because the street does not get that much traffic I find myself driving more towards the center of the street than along the sides unless someone is driving towards me. If you compare that to the very busy Airport Road and it’s potholes , why the city us paving Thornwood makes no sense. The city should use their limited road repair money on streets that really need it and are well used.
I emailed Jim Karch to ask why this road is included. Even though I received a message that he was out of the office until May 20th, he answered me:
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I sent Jim’s response to “Tracy”. This was her response:
They started on the sidewalks today. If Thornwood is a 3, what is Hershey and the parts of Airport with the big potholes? Do they rate in negative numbers? I hit a big pothole on Eastland last Thursday that I was concerned was going to take out one of my new tires.
I just look at my street and the pointless sidewalk work and think how many thousands of dollars are being spent. I know my street will need repaving in the future, but with resources so low, I am sure there are more deserving streets in the city.
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Thanks for the information.
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This is the first time a citizen has said other roads should have priority over hers.
One more email. I remembered some repaving in Hawthorne Hills several years ago, so I asked her about it. I also told her she likely has some priority because the City knows where their money comes from. This was her response:
They did Privet and Stoney 2 years ago. Privet is the street that Thornwood ends at. They are even traveled less than Thornwood and Stoney is a dead end street. That is when they replaced all the perfectly good sidewalk crossings with the new slippery ones. I do believe that the city does try to”be nice” to the taxpayers in Hawthorne. Our streets are always plowed way sooner than my kids -1 who lives in Tipton and another who lives in a nice area on Pamela. Yes, we pay a lot in taxes, but my kids pay nearly as much. I would gladly give up paving Thornwood, if the city would apply that money to paving Airport in the area beside Hawthorne that was not paved a few years ago. That road is crap and the city has to patch those big holes over and over.
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I still can’t figure the sidewalks they are ripping up today. There is nothing wrong with the ones the city is currently replacing. They grade gradually down to the street and there are no major cracks that someone could trip on. I walk my dogs on these sidewalks daily. Maybe there was some sort of ADA thing going on that the city feels they must replace them, but a person in a wheelchair certainly could get across the street with no concerns.
Who lives there? Once that is known, then we’ll know why. People with money & power. Works Everytime.
That’s what I am thinking also. I wrote to Karch asking why Clinton Blvd was not on the list and he forwarded to Pallyn and I got a long response about grades of roads and moving equipment etc. Then i drove down Sunset that is getting all new pavement this summer and there is barely anything wrong with that road. It also gets no traffic. Who lives on these streets that are getting paved this year?
The sidewalk inclines are done to ADA specs. I believe they are changing these as they repair streets.
Is there a councilman (yes, I said that!) or pol who lives there? I can’t imagine that road is worse than Clinton street!
See my comment above👆
I wonder why they have not finished their mess on Regency Drive they started. What are they debating on how many bicycle lanes to put in,1,2, or 3? That street still has no lane markings. I wonder if the city could be sued due to an accident.
When is messy Mercer going to get fixed?
Check out Catherine. No traffic Wood is way worse.
I noticed that the city hires an ex-pantagraph reporter to work on the ada sidewalks near clinton and grove. Odd, but those sidewalks to the street have been handicap accessable for years. Whats the deal? Also noticed on oakland that the sidewalks with handicapped ramps were removed with new ones. Not that oakland isn’t a crap street with potholes and deteriorating surfaces. Oh thats right… oakland is the new speedway for harleys and hot rods. I dont get it.
It is a stretch but….take a range of addresses on roads you are talking about. Go to real estate tax look up page on internet. Enter range of addresses into table for such. It will give you a listing of who owns properties (homes). You can also look at the amount of tax these people paid in order to get an idea of the $$$ involved.
http://mcleanil.devnetwedge.com
Above is link to page….use the “address criteria selection.